Further Reading
Barber, Benjamin R. Str ong Democracy.Berkeley: University of
California Press, 1984.
Bayle, Pierre (1647–1706) French philosopher
and critic
The son of a CALVINISTminister, Bayle was born and
raised in France during the reign of Louis XIV, whose
revocation of the Edict of Nantes outlawed PROTES-
TANTISM in 1685. Educated at the Jesuit College in
Toulouse, Bayle converted to CATHOLICISM, but several
years later he adopted Calvinism. Bayle moved to
Geneva in 1670 and continued his education in philos-
ophy and theology until returning to France in 1674.
In 1675, he was appointed professor of philosophy at
the Protestant academy in Sedan, where he remained
until taking up a position as professor of philosophy
and history in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, in 1681.
Bayle was dismissed from this position in 1693 after a
heated dispute with a Calvinist colleague concerning
the latter’s extreme orthodoxy. He then spent the last
years of his life completing what is probably his most
famous work, the Dictionnaire historique et critique
(Historical and Critical Dictionary).
In the Dictionary,Bayle employed his critical and
skeptical approach in compiling a series of biographi-
cal articles on mostly obscure historical figures, which
were then supplemented by digressive analyses of con-
troversial factual, theological, and philosophical prob-
lems. Bayle’s skepticism toward all ideological and
religious orthodoxy had a great influence on many of
the major ENLIGHTENMENT thinkers, even though the
Dictionarywas condemned by the French Reformed
Church of Rotterdam and banned by the French
Roman Catholic Church soon after its publication.
Although the Dictionarywas a massive work con-
sisting of numerous entries and annotations, the
underlying theme of the text was that of Bayle’s long-
standing plea for broad political TOLERATIONof diver-
gent opinions on religion. In 1686, Bayle had
published his Commentaire philosophique sur ces paroles
de Jésus-Christ “Constrains-les d’entrer” (Philosophical
Commentary on the Words of Jesus Christ “Compel them
to come in”),in which he attacked religious intolerance
and defended the claim that the intolerant should not
be allowed to persecute others. Bayle even went so far
as to suggest protecting the “rights of the erring con-
science” against persecution by authorities who dog-
matically assert knowledge of absolute truth with
respect to religious matters. According to Bayle, reli-
gion and morality are independent of one another
because religion can be based only on faith and not on
reason. Therefore, contrary to the beliefs of many of
his contemporaries, Bayle argued that theist and athe-
ist alike are able to act morally. Toleration, in Bayle’s
uncompromising defense, is a necessary political rem-
edy to the disease of sectarian violence and state
repression.Further Reading
Lennon, T. M. Reading Bayle.Toronto: University of Toronto
Press, 1999.Beccaria, Cesare Bonesana (1738–1794)
Italian criminologist and economist
Born in Milan to an aristocratic family, Beccaria was
educated at a Jesuit school in Parma and received a law
degree from the University of Pavia in 1758. Beccaria
then returned to Milan and became involved in literary
and intellectual societies associated with the ENLIGHT-
ENMENT. After publishing a small pamphlet on mone-
tary reform in 1762, Beccaria began to write a critical
study of criminal law at the suggestion of Count Pietro
Verri. This work, Dei delitti e delle pene (On Crimes and
Punishment),was published anonymously in 1764 and
met with immediate success, appearing in English,
French, German, Spanish, Dutch, and American edi-
tions during the next decade. In 1768, Beccaria was
appointed professor of economics and commerce at
the Palatine School in Milan, and in 1771 he assumed
a position on the Supreme Economic Council of
Milan. He remained a public official for the remainder
of his life.
On Crimes and Punishmentadvanced the first sys-
tematic treatment of criminology and criminal PUNISH-
MENT based on several fundamental concepts of
MODERNpolitical theory. First, Beccaria employed the
idea of a SOCIAL CONTRACTto account for the origin of
political authority. According to Beccaria, each person
sacrifices a limited amount of liberty for the purpose of
establishing civil government. Laws are created under
the terms of the social contract to maintain social
order and to protect the liberty of the members of the
community. However, Beccaria stressed that while the
government is authorized to punish those who trans-
gress the laws, the only legitimate use of punishment30 Bayle, Pierre